Upton St. Leonards (near Gloucester).
This enclosure took place at the same time as that of Castor and Ailesworth, and was completed in 1899. The common fields consisted of 1120 strips of arable land, total area 520 acres, and the “balks” or “meres” separating the strips were estimated at 14 acres. There were more than eighty owners.
No recognised course of husbandry had been followed for about sixty years previously. It is believed that before that time a four-year course obtained, but when mangel wurzels were introduced to the neighbourhood the recurring fallow was discontinued. The right of common after harvest was, however, still maintained. If any cultivator chose he might grow turnips, but he did so at his own risk, and had to keep a boy to guard them from the opening of the fields to the time they could be pulled. Old mere stones are found in the meadows of this parish, and various local traditions remain belonging, apparently, to a period when the village customs resembled those described for Stratton and Grimstone.
Totternhoe (Bedfordshire).
The Enclosure Act was passed in 1886, and the award is dated 1891. Before enclosure Totternhoe was a typical open-field parish; there were only 370 acres of old enclosure, to 1797 acres of common field arable, and 193 acres of common. The situation of Totternhoe is like that of Clothall, on the steep northern slope of the Hertfordshire chalk hills, which here have an almost mountainous appearance. The greater part of the parish was in the ownership of the lord of the manor, but there were forty owners of land altogether, the others being chiefly yeomen. The movement for enclosure came from these yeomen. They took this step in order to protect themselves against the tenants of the lord of the manor, who, whether from ignorance or otherwise, endeavoured to prevent the exercise of well-known rights of common over land in their occupation. The hill top was saved as an open space, and is a favourite picnic resort for the people of Dunstable. Recreation grounds and land for allotments were also set out, as has been the rule since the passing of the Commons Act of 1876. I asked one of the yeomen, who had taken a leading part in bringing about the enclosure, whether it had benefited the parish. He said undoubtedly it had done so, but “the parish has not recovered from it yet.” Questioned as to how this could be, he gave me to understand that the actual increase to the cultivators in annual value was not equal to the interest on the capital expended on carrying out the enclosure; that the assessment had gone up, and the burden of rates and taxes was consequently increased. The land allotted to the lord of the manor still, in the summer of 1900, was mainly unenclosed, and one could get something of the impression of the “champion” country, an impression of great open fields sweeping up to bare downs.
North and South Luffenham and Barrowden (Rutland).
The first steps towards the enclosure of these three parishes were made immediately after the passing of the 1876 Act; the Enclosure Act was passed in 1878, and the awards were made in 1881 and 1882. Out of 5480 acres in the three parishes, 4800 were common-field arable, a heath claimed by both Barrowden and South Luffenham occupied 390 acres, and much of the remainder was commonable meadow and pasture. Two systems of cultivation obtained. Part of the land being heavy clay was on a three years’ course of wheat, beans, etc., and fallow, as at Laxton and Eakring; the lighter land was under a six years’ course. The report of the Enclosure Commissioners says of Barrowden that the 1240 acres of arable land “is divided in 2790 strips, some not more than 12 feet wide, each divided from its neighbour by a green balk, which is a nursery of weeds.” Old farmers, however, assured me that the balks were mostly gone before enclosure. Field reeves were elected, and they settled any dispute that arose in consequence of the absence of balks, and individual farmers quickly detected, by pacing across their strips, if a furrow had been appropriated by a neighbour.
Here, again, I asked whether the enclosure had been a benefit, and I was told that the labourers had benefited by the allotments and recreation grounds; that the lord of the manor of South Luffenham had benefited, because he got the disputed moor, but that farmers, as farmers, had gained nothing, and as common-right owners they had lost through the enclosure of the moor.
Enclosure in this case originated in what may be called the normal way, i.e., on the initiative of the lords of the manors. It was the doubtful ownership of the Barrowden and Luffenham moor which had until 1876 prevented enclosure; then the respective lords agreed to combine to obtain an enclosure of all three parishes, and let the Commissioners determine to which parish the moor belonged. It was awarded to Luffenham, but the Luffenham freeholders lost it just as much as those of Barrowden; it is now the private property of the lord of the manor.